Day 7
We woke up this morning to the news that Bardarbunga, a
volcano under the Vatnajokull glacier, 45 miles north of Hof, is a
rumbling. Tempting fate we back tracked
25 miles to Jokulsarion Ice Lagoon at the south foot of Vatnajokull. When we left Hof it was a cool 48 degrees Fahrenheit,
at the Ice Lagoon it was 36 degrees with gale force winds, very
exhilarating!
On the way west we kept seeing cairns (human constructed way-finding
pile of rocks). Every once in a while we
would see “paranormal cairn”, a two ton rock perched on top of a four ton rock,
out in the middle of no where. Is it a
cairn, a glacier rock formation, entering troll country?
We stopped off at Svartfoss, a classic waterfall with basaltic
rock formation. I was going to fly it
but didn’t want to disturb the tourist.
Running out of gas so we made a pit stop at
Kirkjubaejarklaustur, Klaustur for short; it means “church farm cloister”. Their petrol cost $9 a gallon and stocked-up
on “meat stew”, $11a bowl.
So much to see, on the way to our 10th Open Forest
we stopped:
at Fjadrargljufur Gorge a beautiful eroded canyon
Laki Lava Field with moss covered volcanic rock, beds of
moss, tiny flowers, flowing streams, migrating caterpillars and wicked long
legged spiders
Dyrholaey bird sanctuary with black pebble beaches, caves,
and coastal cliffs
Finally late in the day we made it to Volvuskogur Forest #10. It was part of the University Campus
landscape. Not much in the way of amenities
but obviously a favorite of the hitch hiking backpackers. Camping is not allowed in the Open Forest but
many are used when affordable accommodations are rare.
Ended up the day with Garrett, alone, taking on Skogafoss,
one of Icelands largest falls (90’ wide, 200’ fall).
Spent the night in Hella and traveled 200 miles
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